Violinist Takezawa Returns To Russians, With Love

LAWRENCE A. JOHNSON CLASSICAL MUSIC WRITER

Kyoko Takezawa's flamethrowing performance of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto in December at the Broward Center ended 2001 on a musical high note.

Those who missed that dazzling event will have another chance to hear the gifted Japanese violinist at 8 tonight at Miami Beach's Lincoln Theatre, 555 Lincoln Road. Takezawa will be appearing with her celebrated colleague, Cho-Liang ("Jimmy") Lin, and five other members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in a venturesome program of Russian chamber music. The concert is being presented by the Friends of Chamber Music of Miami.

Takezawa and Lin will perform Prokofiev's Sonata for Two Violins and will be joined by violists Paul Neubauer and Scott Lee and cellists Gary Hoffman and Alisa Weilerstein for Tchaikovsky's sextet, Souvenir de Florence. Lin, Hoffman and pianist Jonathan Biss will present Arensky's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor as the concert's centerpiece.

Takezawa agrees that last December's performance of the Shostakovich concerto with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra was a memorable experience. "It was very special to play it with a Russian orchestra," she said. "It was really inspiring."

The 35-year-old violinist said she put off tackling the gloomy yet transcendently moving Shostakovich work for a long time, yet now it is one of her favorites. "I've always wanted to learn it, but it's not an easy piece; always at the beginning there are some doubts.

"But by this time I know the piece and it helped that the orchestra knows it so well. I could be very free and I could make a closer communication with the orchestra, more like playing chamber music. They really listened to what I was doing. That was very good and made it very enjoyable."

A highlight of her blazing performance was the wrenching and difficult solo cadenza, where the violin battles back from the abyss to an optimistic if frenetic conclusion. "It's always a very intense moment," she said, laughing.

Takezawa is looking forward to performing the Prokofiev work, which she played last year in Japan with Lin as well. "It's really equally written for the two violins," she says of the infrequently heard two-fiddle sonata. "It has the typical Prokofiev character, but the third movement is calm, really beautiful and lyrical. I think that even an audience that is not familiar with the piece can enjoy it as well."

Tickets for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert are $25. Call Friends of Chamber Music at 305-372-2975.

Chamber bonanza

The Lincoln Center musicians will not be the only chamber music visitors from out of town appearing on Lincoln Road this week. At 8 p.m. Tuesday the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute for Young Artists will present a free concert at the Lincoln Theatre. Summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia is one of the country's leading major summer music festivals, and the Steans Institute invites gifted young musicians for training every year with leading artists.

The Institute's faculty chairman, violinist Miriam Fried, will lead a group of young Steans musicians in performances of Beethoven's Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Bartok's String Quartet No. 3 and Mendelssohn's Octet. The concert, jointly presented by the New World Symphony and the Concert Association of Florida, is already booked solid, but you can get on a waiting list by calling the box office at 305-673-3331.

Several other musical events of note are coming up as well. The New World Symphony is presenting a benefit concert honoring Black History Month on Feb. 15. Conductor AndrM-i Raphel Smith will lead the orchestra in music by African-American composers. The program will feature William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony, Duke Ellington's Harlem, Danse NegrM-i by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Michael Abels' Dance for Martin's Dream. Guest vocalist Kevin Maynor will perform spirituals and Bishop Carlos L. Malone Sr. will be the master of ceremonies.

The concert will take place at 8 p.m. at Bethel Full Gospel Baptist Church, 14440 Lincoln Blvd., Miami. Tickets are $20, $10 for students. All proceeds will benefit the New World Symphony's Scholarship Fund for African-American Classical Music Students. Call 305-673-3331 or visit tickets@nws.org.